Documents Detail How Nuclear Material Was Handled At San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant

Documents Detail How Nuclear Material Was Handled At San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant

Documents newly obtained by NBC 7 Investigates during secret talks about the condition of the land where the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) sits detail how nuclear material was handled at the plant since the 1980s.

The documents were released to individuals involved with the secret negotiations about the current condition and future handling of the 25-acre property. According to a source familiar with the negotiations, the secret meetings have been going on for about 20 months and involve all the players with a stake in the prime coastal property.

Those players include the U.S. Navy, which owns the property; the U.S. Marines, whose base surrounds the property; and Southern California Edison (SCE) and San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E), both of which hold the lease to the property.

A source close to the lease negotiations told NBC 7 Investigates that SCE and SDG&E want out of the lease as soon as possible. According to the source, the team representing the utilities has told all involved they want nondisclosure agreements signed so no one can go public with any information disclosed during the negotiations.

So far, one or more of the parties involved in the talks are refusing to sign the nondisclosure agreements.

This has caused the lease negotiations to go slowly, according to NBC 7 Investigates’ source, who said the utilities are reluctant to provide full disclosure on what has occurred on the property since they took possession of it.

In an email, an SCE spokesperson told NBC 7 Investigates the company has shared substantial information about the property lease with the public. Responses to other questions were left unanswered by the company. The Navy, Marines and SDG&E did not respond to questions or request for comment for this story.

Read the full response from SCE below.

NBC 7 Investigates received a copy of two documents the utilities have provided the team negotiating on behalf of the government.

According to the documents, plant employees told an Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) inspector that they felt the waste monitor tanks inside of an auxiliary building were probably the source of radiation found on the beach. However, the inspector focused on a concrete block cubicle near the building which employees said contained “fairly high levels of radioactive waste.”

The radiation levels around the concrete cubicle were so elevated “the inspector did not perform a survey inside,” according to the documents.

The report says it was determined the cubicle was “responsible for most of the radiation measured on the beach.” The leak problem was resolved by placing a 3/8-inch sheet of lead on the roof of the structure, the documents state.

This document was provided by the utilities to “identify those locations at the Mesa that were affected by the inappropriate presence of radioactive materials.” It’s a foundation, they say, to determine whether “additional radiological surveys are appropriate to confirm the complete cleanup of radioactive materials.”

The 900-page assessment shows radiation readings at the time on the property, photographs and a summary of what was determined. According to the document, utility officials don’t believe any of the radioactivity spread, though they couldn’t draw the same conclusion for materials left in the weather or exposed to the elements.

One potential problem, a former San Onofre Safety Officer Vinrod Arora said, was the “cordial relationship” between the plant and the agency that inspected them — the NRC.

Arora worked at the plant for 15 years. He told NBC 7 Investigates even if SCE turned over all property inspection documents, there’s no guarantee of having a complete picture of the land’s conditions. NRC inspections, he said, are thorough but limited.

“They have to do a lot of things in the given time frame, so they are focused on the problems identified by the operator of the plant,” Arora said.

As a safety officer, Arora saw internal reports as they came through the system and noticed a pattern in NRC inspections. According to Arora, the agency would usually only inspect a problem which SCE identified.

“It is very seldom they will discover a new problem on their own,” he said.

Arora is currently suing SCE, saying the company fired him after he raised concerns about safety at the plant.

In the documents, NBC 7 Investigates did find examples of an NRC inspector alerting SCE to a safety issue. One happened during the inspection done in January 1981, according to the documents.

It also says initially the plant personnel did nothing until the inspector reminded them of the “unnecessary exposure being received” by occupants of the trailer.

After reading in the report about a steam generator system pipe that was “hot,” Hopenfeld said, “You have hot spots, you don’t know what they are.” After reading more of the report, he told NBC 7 Investigates, “Apparently no one paid attention to this big pipe and they sent it off-site”

Eventually, according to the documents, an anonymous letter warned that the pipe was radioactive, and it was returned to the Mesa where inspectors “found radioactivity all over it.”

Hopenfeld said that although most of the radioactivity problems described in the reports were at lower levels and these problems were reported early in the life of San Onofre, he is still troubled by them.

“This is an indication of the mentality and the culture at the time at SONGS,” he said.

Arora said the plant grounds should be thoroughly inspected by an independent third party and not by SCE or SDGE or any of their subcontractors.

“Be very careful of the goods they accept from Edison with the blessings of the NRC,” Arora warned. The concern, he said, is not just for the land but for those that might someday use it.

“We want to make sure our Marines and their families are taken care of and not subject to any unidentified contamination,” Arora said.